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Republican control of both houses of Congress gives the GOP extraordinary power over science policy in the United States. Last month, we had a lengthy discussion of the party's interests and outlook in scientific research with Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), who had been named chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on commerce, justice and science. Culberson's appointment as "cardinal" of the CJS subcommittee gives him oversight of NASA and the National Science Foundation, and a powerful role in government policy on issues such as climate change. As you will see from the following discussions, Culberson,...

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Republican control of both houses of Congress gives the GOP extraordinary power over science policy in the United States. Last month, we had a lengthy discussion of the party's interests and outlook in scientific research with Rep. John Culberson...

As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft gets ready to enter orbit around Ceres -- the first dwarf planet visited by a satellite -- mission scientists are using new images to try to understand strange and surprising features on its icy surface.
Dawn will enter...

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has snapped even clearer views of Ceres, but its surface just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. A strange bright spot on the dwarf planet now appears to have a companion spot shining right next to it.
Bright spots are...

The Amazon rainforest is fertilized in part by phosphorus from a dry lake bed in the Sahara desert, researchers say in a new report that shows how different parts of our planet are connected in deep and surprising ways.
The findings were...

Well hey there, little moons! In the home stretch of a 9.5-year journey, NASA’s New Horizons mission has caught two of Pluto’s lunar companions on camera as they circle around the dwarf planet. The images, made into a video, offer the first good view of...

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has snapped the best images to date of the dwarf planet Ceres, bringing mysterious fuzzy features spotted on the icy little world’s surface into sharper focus.
The latest images were snapped on Feb. 12, when Dawn was 52,000 miles...

It's the home stretch for NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which after a 3-billion-mile journey has finally got the dwarf planet Ceres in its sights. Now, Dawn's newest images reveal fascinating features on Ceres' surface that will only grow clearer in the...

The asteroid that flew past Earth on Monday was not traveling alone. As you can clearly see in the image above, it was accompanied by its very own mini-moon.
The picture was taken by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna at the Goldstone complex...

Pluto, get ready for your close-up.
After traveling nine years across more than 3 billion miles of space, a spacecraft the size of a grand piano is about to give humanity its first high-resolution view of the dwarf planet that's about two-thirds the size...

NASA's New Horizons space probe has sent back some new images of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon as seen from more than 126,000 miles away.
Over the coming months, the grand piano sized spacecraft will take thousands of pictures that...

If you listen to climate change skeptics, Earth’s surface hasn’t warmed appreciably in the last 15 years, and any "record" set last year is just the result of the planet doing what the planet naturally does.
It turns out they’re right, but...

Pilot Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton Jr., known as the "Dean of Flight Test" for his involvement in pioneering programs including the space shuttle piggyback flights, died Wednesday at home in Thousand Oaks. He was 89.
The cause was...

The White House budget request for 2016 has proposed to give NASA $18.5 billion, including funding for the Mars 2020 rover and a mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
But while the overall budget is nearly half a billion dollars more than the 2015 budget...

Eat your heart out, Hubble! NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is in the home stretch of its journey to Ceres and has snapped the best images yet of the dwarf planet. Grainy as they are, the new views of the 590-mile-wide world are already turning up unexpected...

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has rediscovered a "lost" British spacecraft that disappeared without a trace more than 11 years ago.
The discovery of the Beagle 2 lander, hailed by planetary scientists, solves a decade-old mystery as to the...

Methane is making a comeback on Mars.
NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected a tenfold spike in the gas that lasted for several weeks, scientists announced Tuesday. On Earth, most methane is produced by living things, and a healthy dose of this organic...

A series of rainstorms — one of which was powerful and destructive for residents statewide — helped deposit needed moisture to California, but it’s going to take 11 trillion gallons of water in storage to recover from the drought, NASA scientists said...

Americans are serious about their Christmas lights -- so much so that a NASA satellite can see them from space.
The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, which NASA operates with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, can’t...